Fluid Dynamics

Blood flow in medium and large arteries are described by the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations.

The research focused on efficient solvers and preconditioners for the saddle-point problem arising from the finite element approximation of the NS equations. In particular inexact block LU factorization preconditioners have been studied.

Another topic concerns the well-posedness and stability of the fluid problem in a moving domain.

Other research fields includes reduced models and geometrical parametrization, and including uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis.

In view of clinical pathological applications (stenotic carotids) the research at MOX laboratory focuses also on turbulence phenomena, in particular with the Large Eddy Simulation strategy.

A parallel research field concerns advection of solutes in blood flow, such as oxygen transport and drug release from medical stents.

M. Prosi, P. Zunino, K. Perktold, A. Quarteroni,Mathematical and numerical models for transfer of low-density lipoproteins through the arterial walls: A new methodology for the model set up with applications to the study of disturbed lumenal flow, Journal of Biomechanics, 38(4), pp. 903-917, 2005